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Winters in Ramnicu Valcea were quite mild in those times, though there was plenty of snow (I guess this is the cliché of those whose childhood memories are blurred by their excessive subjectivity); anyway, they unfolded following a certain ritual: at the beginning of December

excerpts Mirceşti, 1880 Dear friend, These days I've lost a childhood friend, whose name resembled more of a person who lives in a tent than of a gentleman, for his name was Porojan! He was one of our slaves, a gypsy, and baker by trade. I confess having felt a

THE CLASS TEACH' You don't fool me, Ghiţulescu! You've got Kents, bless your wallet! Throw one over, 'cause I'm poor, my mother's unemployed and keeps me only on shots of glucose, she has no food to give me. Come ooooooon, please! Ghiţulescu

The movie made after the novel (aka The Graduates, 1987, directed by Nicolae Corjos, b. 1935 - click here to see fragment) – a simple, old story (a young man, Mihai, comes to the big city – Bucharest – to learn in high school, where his passion for math and philosophy

Between September 15 and June 15, every child's life was hijacked by school. School was the children's only officially-sanctioned pursuit. Their only obligation. None of us got any thrill out of getting up early, eyes heavy with sleep, and trudging all the way

excerpts A PRIMER OF SORTS KIWI Kiwi, the bird I am going to tell you about, goes by the name of Kiwi. No one ever saw it flying. It never came to anyone's window, ever. The wind never ruffled its feathers. The sun never turned its wings to gold. Kiwi is a bird from

END OF THE LAST TRIMESTER. Shortly before holidays, Radu and Dan are learning. To be precisely: they study. Even more precisely: they study zoology. With his head between his hands, balancing on the front feet of his chair, Radu reads aloud: The camel is a vertebrate mammal,

This boy's a first-class dreamer, yes indeed…His thoughts take off at supersonic speed,And he is wont to let them freely soarT'wards what the glorious future holds in store.  This boy is sometimes dreaming wide awakeThat he's a writer blessed with world-wide

excerpt  Among our scholarly workmates three or four quickly distinguished themselves, and they would compete against each other for first place in our class. Our former prize winning classmate, Motas Constantin, had moved to a science class. Now two pupils, Ciurea Constantin

excerpts Master Vucea had no servants. Apart from his cook, we were his only servants. Those of us who were poor and were not dressed German style figured on his purchase list. When he needed to decide who would go to the market place and who to the grocer's he called

excerpts THREE KM. FROM A. , A BEND IN THE ROAD… N. R. 6 (National Road 6) goes exactly through the centre of the small town of A. Three kilometers from the railway gate, after going over the railway tracks which unite this part of the country with Bucharest (distance:

excerpt AAAGH, WHAT A NIGHTMARE! I jumped up and forgot it was Sunday. I was just about to get dressed and go to school, to find out if Hari had come to any harm; I was like one of those old biddies who dream I don't know what, a black pond or something, and then think